


A Negotiation

by artemisscribe



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Kidnapping, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 00:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8600314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemisscribe/pseuds/artemisscribe
Summary: "If you think that one's good you should hear about the time Scott got kidnapped, it's a doozy!"





	

The black bag is pulled off Scott’s head and he finds himself blinking under the harsh glare of industrial lighting.

He makes a split-second decision to exaggerate his disorientation, get a look at his surroundings. Letting his head loll around he takes in the abandoned warehouse, his date, Nadia, shivering in the chair next to him. The chairs are old metal things and they’re both secured with handcuffs, which is irritating since having four brothers means Scott has more than enough practice at getting out of knots. Picking locks however has never been his forte.

There are four armed men in masks that he can see, though it’s safer to assume that there are more elsewhere. They’re dotted about the warehouse, one in front of him, two by the only door he can see and one under a window at the far end of the space. They’re jittery, nervous, which is good and bad. He can use their unease to his advantage, but he can’t push it too hard because a nervous man with a gun is far more willing to use it than a calm one.

He glances back over at Nadia, who is watching him with fearful, red-rimmed eyes. He smiles softly, mouthing “You okay?” at her. She nods, a little hesitant, but putting on a brave face. He smiles again, and he’s about to ask her something else when he gets an eye-watering slap across the face from one of the kidnappers.  
“No talking” the big guy says and Scott knows instantly that they’re amateurs. Okay, he can work with this. It’s a lot less ideal than a professional kidnapping but he can work with it, he’s just got to keep his cool.  
“I’m just trying to ask her if she’s okay” he says being careful to keep his tone as neutral as possible,  
“And I said no talking!” the big guy says again, “The only time you talk is when you call your father to tell him our demands.”

Scott decides to change tactics,  
“And what are your demands?” he asks, switching to a relaxed conversational tone,  
“Wh-what?”  
“What are your demands?” Scott repeats, slower this time, “I can’t exactly tell him if I don’t know.”  
“Yes, right...” the big guy says, still sounding unsure, as if he’s looking for the trick, “We want $15 million dollars by noon tomorrow.”  
“Fifteen?” Scott asks  
“Yes” the big guy nods,  
“It’s just if you make it ten I can give you the money right now.” Scott says, using every ounce of his will power to stop himself from grinning when he can feel the tension in the room shift to a heady blend of curiosity and greed.

“Bullshit” the big guy says, “You don’t even have ten cents on you, where the hell are you keeping ten million dollars?”  
“I don’t have cash on me” Scott says, “But I’ve had the account details of my ransom fund memorized since I was eleven.”  
“Ransom fund?” the big guy says,  
Scott rolls his eyes,  
“My Dad is the most powerful man in the world, I’m a billionaire in my own right and I’m the highest profile junior officer in the GDF Air Force who, by the way, sent me to an active conflict zone last year. Do you really think there isn’t a contingency plan for this kind of thing?” he asks derisively, “I have an account with exactly ten million dollars in it, ready to be sent anywhere in the world as soon as you tell me where you want it.”

This stumps the big guy and Scott can feel the power in the room shift ever so slightly in his own direction. He stops speaking here; chooses to let the silence do some of the work for him like he’s seen his dad do a thousand time in business negotiations.   
“We wanted cash- hey now shut up!” the big guy’s uncertainty quickly shifts to angry embarrassment as Scott full on laughs in his face. There’s tension in the big guy’s shoulders, his hand worries the grip of his gun. Beside him Scott can feel Nadia’s stare of disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” Scott shrugs, still grinning “But the fact that you think anyone is going to be able to get their hands on ten million dollars in cash on a Sunday morning is ridiculous.”  
“Jeff Tracy is the richest man in the world.”  
“We don’t keep piles of money just lying around the house!” Scott laughs, “Contrary to popular belief my dad doesn’t _actually_ light his cigars off a hundred dollar bill. It’s all in trusts and company shares and _banks_. Banks that have opening hours and mandatory verification periods for incredibly large sums of money. You want a ransom in cash? Fine. But you’re gonna have to wait ‘til at least Tuesday if you’re lucky and you don’t have that kind of time. The ransom fund’ll pay out right now.”  
“But only ten million dollars” the big guy says pointedly,  
“Ten million is a more than generous price for me” Scott replies.  
“But it’s not just you here.”

The big guy looks pointedly in Nadia’s direction who’s bravery cracks ever so slightly, just enough for Scott to be able to hear her shuddering intake of breath. He doesn’t need to look at her to know she must be crying, and for the first time tonight Scott is angry.  
“No. No way,” he says, all mockery gone from his voice, he’s all business now, “You are not going to threaten her. Both of us are walking out of here tonight and every time she gets even a paper-cut from you I’m knocking half a million off what I’m willing to give you. Hurting people I care about is not a good way to get me to comply with you. It’s a great way to get me to resist you.”

A stronger man would call his bluff and shoot her right then and there and hold out for the fifteen million from Jeff. A professional wouldn’t even be having this argument, they’d have taken the ten as soon as it was offered. But this man is a weak amateur, and so he loses an argument he should never have started in the first place.  
“We’ll get the money right away?” the big guy asks,  
“All I need is an internet connection and where you want the money sent.” Scott nods.

*

It takes him five minutes to wire the money, they even unshackle him and let him do it himself rather than get him to reel off the details to them. As he watches them hurriedly pack up their kit he does a brief bit of mental maths,  
“So what happens now?” Scott asks, trying not to fidget at the sensation of the gun that one of the other kidnappers has pressed between his shoulder blades.  
“We go,” says the big guy, “And you two can enjoy you newly bought freedom however you please.”  
“That’s very kind of you,” Scott says, “Isn’t that nice of them?” he asks Nadia who stares back at him like he’s just grown a second head. He has a sneaking feeling that this relationship isn’t going to go anywhere after tonight. This isn't the kind of incident you can survive on only the second date. Shame.

*

Scott is the image of compliance up until the kidnappers leave. Silent, still and avoiding looking at them until the big guy throws a set of keys to the floor in front of Scott and hustles his companions out the door. Scott doesn’t move until he’s heard the door slam before lunging for the ring of keys and scrambling to unlock the cuffs that shackle his ankles to the legs of his chair. In a moment he’s on his knees in front of Nadia, just as she finally breaks her silence and begins to cry loud, panicked sobs,  
“Oh my God!” she sobs, “Oh my God I thought we were going to die!”  
“It’s okay” he tells her, hushing her in a gentle soothing tone as he uncuffs her and she falls into his arms, “It’s all okay, you’re okay. It’s over.”  
“How are you so calm about this?” Nadia demands  
“I’m trained for this,” he shrugs, it's not really a conversation he wants to have, but since he got her kidnapped he feels like he owes her the truth, “This is a major part of my reality.”  
“This has happened to you before?” she asks, eyes wide and she looks like she’s going to cry again, which is really very sweet of her,  
“Twice,” he nods, “But not like this, those were professionals who knew I’d have a ransom fund. They were more like being mugged. You get bundled into a van, they ask for the account details and they dump you again before you’ve even gone two blocks. They know you can’t keep a person in the same place for too long.”

Nadia frowns,  
“Why not?” she asks,   
Scott smiles and glances at his watch as he helps Nadia to her feet, shrugging out of his jacket to drape it around her shoulders,  
“It’s a little after 2am, which means it’s been just over an hour and a half since someone checked my GPS tracker,” he explains, tapping the spot on his shoulder where he knows the tiny scar is, “They will have seen that my current location doesn’t match up with where I last said I was.”  
“You're watched that closely?” she asks, shocked at the idea of being monitored 24/7.  
“Oh man! This is nothing compared to my brothers.” Scott says as they reach the door of the warehouse, “In our family my system is considered pretty hands off. But it has its uses.”  
“Like what?” Nadia asks  
“Like the way that a rescue operation can be mounted in less than thirty minutes from the moment that I’m grabbed.”  
“But like you said, it’s been over ninety minutes,” Nadia points out, “Sounds like it didn’t work this time.”  
“Didn’t it?” Scott asks, opening the door to reveal the sight of eight police cars, a SWAT van, and most satisfying of all, the four kidnappers knelt in the middle of the street with their hands on their heads.  
“Oh my God!” Nadia gasps, Scott just shakes his head,  
“Amateurs” he sighs.


End file.
